Doctor canvasses better treatment for bomb-blast victims

December 26, 2012 by Bukola Adebayo

Some victims of the bomb blast | credits: David Attah

the immediate past president of the Association of Resident Doctors, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Dr. Bright Igbinoba, has called on the Federal Government to upgrade facilities at the Burns Unit of the hospital for the treatment of bomb-blast victims in the country.

Igbinoba, who made this call at the 2012 Scientific Conference of the association tagged, ‘Insecurity in Nigeria: A Challenge for the Health Sector, in Lagos on Thursday, said existing facilities at the Burns Unit of the tertiary hospital were inadequate for proper management of burns cases especially for blast injuries.

He said, “With the spate of insecurity in the country, by now, Igbobi should have been designated as the Burns Centre especially with the population of bomb blast survivors that we have and the increasing insecurity in the country.

“The unit should be upgraded to a centre with facilities and personnel. This would better position the hospital for the treatment and management of victims. It would reduce the number of casualities and deaths during disasters.’’

He lamented that many bomb-blast victims who needed specialised care were often referred to the centre but they could not be admitted due to lack of facilities and bed spaces at the unit.

According to him, the burns unit of the hospital could not admit more than 20 patients at a time.

“When there is a blast, we can have many victims coming here, yet we don’t have the facilities to admit them and they are usually in critical stages where they should be in intensive care but we can’t help in spite of our expertise. So, we are calling on the Federal Government that we need facilities that can take more blast injured patients at the Unit,” he stated.

He also added that more centres for blast injuries should be established in other zones especially in areas that are worst hit by disasters.

Good talk,bt we shld nt pray for bomb blast in Nigeria again b/c we r nt terrorists,we r Nigerians,a great and United country.God will help us.

Doc to be

Its just the nature of the country b/c the truth is bomb blasts are different from burns.The irradiation from the bomb when coupled with uv light can cause large keloids/predispose the patient to leukamia or other cancer like breast,colon etc & even catarracts can result,so in developed countries it is a different case.